Augusta National's No. 6 is unusual par-3

Scott and Danielle Gadow sat on the slope of the No. 6 tee eating their sandwiches. Suddenly, a high tee shot from Rory McIlroy flew over their heads, landing left of the green.

No. 6, the second par-3 at Augusta National Golf Club, is a unique hole for several reasons.

The hole, which plays 180 yards, is one of the most elevated on the course from tee to green. The tee box sits well above the green – enough to allow patrons to sit underneath, even while golfers are teeing off.

“Sometimes you can hear the ball flying over your head,” said Scott Gadow, who has attended the Masters Tour­nament with his wife for 12 years. “You get so close to the players walking by. Practice rounds, sometimes they stop and talk with you.”

Those who sit near the tee box are able to view Nos. 6 and 16 with only a shift of the eyes.

Known as Juniper, No. 6 has one of the most undulating greens on the course. The green features two shelves on each back corner, with the Thursday and Friday pin placements sitting on them. Miss a landing spot by a few inches and the ball will roll into the low spot in the middle of the green, forcing a long, uphill putt.

“You literally have to go straight at it,” said Jamie Donaldson, who made a hole-in-one at No. 6 on Thursday, the fifth on that hole in Masters history. “If you pull it slightly, it will just feed 30 to 40 feet and you’re playing up over a massive hill. It’s tough.”

The green’s difficulty shows in the statistics; 80 percent of the field hit the green on the tee shot Friday, but there were only four birdies.

Saturday and Sunday pin placements have varied over the past few years but are usually below the back shelves, normally behind the front left bunker and on the right side.

The sixth hole historically plays fairly tough, ranking 13th with a 3.14 scoring average. It ranked eighth in 2012 at 3.17.

In the 1954 Masters, Billy Joe Patton and Leland Gibson recorded aces at the hole. Charles Coody and Chris DiMarco are the other two to ace the hole, using a 5-iron. Donaldson used a 7-iron.

“The pin was high up on the right, and I went straight at it, and the shot just came off absolutely perfect,” Donaldson said. “For it to go in – you’re happy if it stays up on the top corner, and it went in.”